WIL-FM
WIL-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and serving Greater St. Louis. It airs a country music format and is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The studios are on Olive Boulevard, near Interstate 270 in Creve Coeur.
The transmitter is on Butler Hill Road near Keller Road in St. Louis. WIL-FM uses HD Radio technology. Its HD2 subchannel plays Americana music known as "Second Fiddle." The HD3 subchannel plays oldies and feeds FM translator W232CR at 94.3 MHz.
History
WIL-FM signed on the air on July 15, 1962, as the FM sister station to WIL (1430 AM). In its first decade, it mostly simulcast the AM station, which aired a Top 40 format, and were owned by WIL, Inc., a subsidiary of Balaban Stations. At the time, their studios were in Broadcasting House in St. Louis. WIL-FM was only powered at 30,000 watts, a fraction of its current output.WIL-FM took the call sign KFMS on March 30, 1973. After a year, it returned to WIL-FM, effective September 1, 1974. In the 1970s, WIL had switched to a personality country format, while the FM aired a more music-intensive country format, with less chatter and fewer commercials.
Over time, as more people tuned to the FM band for music listening, WIL-FM became the dominant station. Eventually, the AM station changed its call letters to KZQZ and is now dark. WIL-FM was later acquired by Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International.
Bonneville announced its sale of WIL-FM to Hubbard Broadcasting on January 19, 2011. The sale was completed on April 29, 2011.
On January 30, 2017, WIL-FM re-branded as "New Country 92.3". On October 6, 2020, the station dropped the "New Country 92.3" branding and returned to using its call letters in its branding as "92.3 WIL".
HD Radio
Starting in 2012, WIL-FM's HD2 digital subchannel began airing Americana music, calling itself "Second Fiddle". Previously, WIL-FM-HD2 was branded as "Kerosene Country", and largely had the same playlist as WIL-FM.On February 18, 2020, WIL-FM signed on a third subchannel, and began airing an oldies format, branded as "My Mix 94.3." The subchannel feeds FM translator W232CR at 94.3 MHz in Alton, Illinois.